An INTP reading between the lines of the human narrative

The Root of Polarization

There’s been a lot of fallout since the election, and it strikes me that the main message of my first novel speaks to our highly-polarized situation.

Polarization is engineered

First of all, polarization is engineered. I’ve mentioned in previous posts that we’re taught and trained to take sides, and it’s generally because those who actually run our society want us divided. A unified populace is a threat to any government or regime. But I’m not interested in talking about political manipulation; I want to go deeper with something that’s relevant to all of us, especially now.

What’s the internal dynamic that gets us angry with each other?

We can say it’s natural for people to reject others who disagree, but is it natural to want to kill them for disagreeing? One vocal somebody has called for voters of the ‘wrong’ persuasion to be killed and have their wives and daughters raped.

SERIOUSLY?!!

It means THAT much to him? I would hope we all understand that presidential candidates gain their positions of power by doing things we private citizens would consider immoral/unethical/unscrupulous. We all get that, don’t we? No candidate is ever the ‘good and moral person’ we’d all like to see running the country, so why exactly is there all this side-taking at the grassroots level?

My answer isn’t most peoples’.

After half a century of observing ordinary everyday people transform into bitter, rage-filled creatures (and becoming one myself), I conclude that we’re all manipulated by a thing called Hate. I don’t mean an emotion labeled ‘hatred’; nor a sentiment called ‘hate’ that consists of “I’m offended and outraged.” I’m talking about an actual thing called Hate (capital ‘H’).

We’re all manipulated by a thing called Hate.

Thoughtforms

Conceptually, thoughtforms are mental constructs that arise from habitual ways of thinking. We all create thoughtforms. Every habit is a thoughtform, as is every opinion. But what happens when many people share the same thoughtform all at once? That critical mass establishes a persistent thoughtform that seems to take on a life of its own. This results in mob mentality and related group dynamics. I believe this is the case with Hate. It’s been with us since the beginning, and it’s had these hundreds, if not thousands of generations in which to feed and grow, becoming more and more forceful and potent all the while. At this point in the human race’s history, the ever-present Hate thoughtform is essentially independent of us and pursues its own agenda. And the agenda of a Hate thoughtform is going to be more hatred. That’s its food, so that’s what it needs in order to continue. Hate has become self-propagating to the point that now, it’s no longer subordinate to the race that created it, but is actually imposing its will upon us. Hatred has developed to the point that it now plays us against one another for its own ends. And by taking sides and hating, we become unwitting soldiers in Hate’s army.

Hate has become self-propagating… actually imposing its will upon us.

Hate causes massive destruction, and we never even get to look it in the eye. We only recognize the thoughtform of Hate through its effects — the telltale signs of its presence. Think of the ordinary German citizens of the 1930s who worked and lived side-by-side with their Jewish neighbors for generations, then suddenly turned on them. History’s full of such notable moments, and they’re noteworthy because they’re so out of character. To my eyes, that’s the telltale sign of a thoughtform in action. Nazism, religious jihad, racial oppression, gender wars, political affiliations — even things that should be trivial, like sports rivalries… all of these polarizations are weapons Hate uses to get us battling each other. And because we’ve never labeled Hate as a thing, we internalize it and assume it’s part of us. Hate has a way of convincing us that we’re justified in our outrage against the others; that their offenses deserve and demand retribution, so we go willingly to our trenches and wage war. We eagerly pick up the weapons Hate gives us and use them on each other, never realizing that we’ve been played.

Hate has a way of convincing us to go willingly to our trenches and wage war.

We’ve been trained to hate. And while that could and should infuriate all of us, there’s a terrible reality to face: we have no one to take out our fury on. There’s no way to kick and punch and shoot a thoughtform, and if we take it out on each other, we’re just playing into Hate’s hands even more. The only way to destroy this useless thoughtform is to starve it by setting down its weapons and refusing to participate. But, sadly, that means turning the other cheek even when fighting back is justified. And who among us has the courage and fortitude to do that?

The only way to starve the thoughtform of Hate is to set down its weapons and refuse to participate.

This is why Hate lives on, ever thriving on our individual and collective pain. The only way we can starve the thoughtform of Hate out of existence is for all of us to reject Hate at the same time and no longer use its weapons against each other. Such an event would come as an enlightened global accord that some future generation would be spiritually evolved enough to agree to.

Given the rapidly deteriorating state of our world, we’ll have to hope that such a generation is already on its way.

Michael is author of the Soulstice Saga, a transcendental ‘spacetime’ opera. Having experienced the overpowering passion of Hate’s manipulations, he considers himself and everyone to be casualties in an unseen war. Nothing he’s experienced in life has contradicted this.